Ghapama - Armenian Stuffed Pumpkin with Rice and Fruit
Sweet, fragrant, colorful both outside and inside, made with a pumpkin stuffed with rice, butter, honey, raisins, nuts, dried fruits and other bounties of autumn.
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Ingredients
- 1 pumpkin 3 kilogram
- 1 cup rice
- 70 gram butter melted
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 butternut squash cut, pitted, seeded, diced
- 1 apple diced
- 1 quince diced
- 1/2 cup golden raisin
- 1/2 cup dried apricots
- 1/4 cup almonds toasted
Instructions
Carving and preparing pumpkin
- Cut the top of the pumpkin and save it for later to serve it as a lid. Remove the seeds, clean wash the inside.1 pumpkin
- Generously apply the butter and honey inside the walls, rubbing them in. Sprinkle with a touch of cinnamon to coat the insides.70 gram butter, 1/4 cup honey
Preparing Stuffing
- Core, and peel the apples and quince. Dice them and set aside.1 apple, 1 quince
- Cut the neck of the butternut squash and peel the skin. Dice into half inch cubes.1 butternut squash
- Cut the apricots into little chunks.1 cup rice
- Bring five cups of water to a boil and cook the rice like you would cook pasta. Add a pinch of salt. Cook for 10 minutes.
- Toast the almonds on a dry skillet for 2-3 minutes.1/4 cup almonds
- While the rice is cooking, add 2 tablespoons of melted butter In a small sauce pan; combine the cubed apples, butternut squash, raisins, apricots, honey and cook until the raisins are plump and squash is softened a bit and the fruits have released their juice. Add the almonds to the mixture.1/2 cup golden raisin, 1/4 cup almonds, 1/2 cup dried apricots
- Combine the rest of the butter with honey and set aside.
Stuffing the pumpkin
- Fill in ⅓ of the rice in the bottom of the squash. Add the 1/3 raisin and fruit mixture followed by a drizzle of the butter and honey. Alternate the same process and finish with the fruit.
- Put the top (lid) on and tightly cover with a foil.
Baking the pumpkin
- Preheat the oven to 350 ℉ (180℃)
- Place the pumpkin in a rimmed oven-safe dish to catch juice overflowing from the sides.
- Bake in a preheated oven for an hour. Check if done by testing the pumpkin flesh at the lid area.
- Raise temperature to 425℉ (210℃) and cook for an additional 30 minutes uncovered.
- To serve, take off the top and cut into wedges following the indentations on the pumpkin.
- Garnish with toasted almonds.
